A FIRST DIFFICULTY
“For goodness sake tell me all about it, Billy,” urged Dan.
His brother did so, relating the particulars of how Maxey Solomons had
been rescued from the automobile and the conversation which had
followed.
“You know how Maxey is. He changes his mind mighty easily. And, Dannie,
I really believe the car is worth a whole lot more than five hundred
dollars.”
“But it’s every cent you’ve got, Billy!”
“I know it. That’s what’s bothering me. It’s going to cost something to
hoist the car out of the tree, and then it’ll cost I don’t know how much
to put it into shape again—as much as fifty dollars, perhaps.”
“Is that all, Billy?” queried his brother, in surprise.
“The car isn’t damaged much. I found and saved everything that dropped
out of it when it was overturned. The thing is wrenched some, I suppose,
and dented and marred. That’s all. And it cost over two thousand
dollars.”
“I know,” said Dan, nodding. “I know all about it. I rode in the car one
day with Maxey, too. It’s a dandy!”
“You bet it is!” cried Billy, eagerly, and evidently much relieved
because his brother took the news as he had. “Suppose we could fix it up
and enter for the gold cup that Mr. Briggs has offered? Wouldn’t that be
great?”
“That’s all right, Billy. I’ll go over and look at the car with you on
Monday. Perhaps we can get it onto the road without much trouble. But
say! I never knew you to be so selfish before, boy.”
“How?” grunted Billy, in surprise.
“Why, you might have given a fellow a chance to buy in with you.”
“Dannie!”
“Going to have it all to yourself, are you?”
“I thought you’d say I was crazy to do it,” explained Billy, eagerly. “I
have been afraid to tell mother and father. Of course, they said we
could do exactly what we pleased with that money the Darringfords gave
us——”
“Don’t worry about it. I believe you’ve made a good investment,”
declared Dan, confidently. “And if you’ll sell me a half interest in the
car, I’ll draw out half my money, and then we’ll divide the cost of
repairing the machine between us.”
“Bully!” shouted Billy, smacking his brother on his sturdy shoulder.
“That will be fine.”
“I’d do the same for you, Billy-boy,” said Dan. “And I’m just as eager
to enter that endurance test as you are.”
“And suppose we could win the cup, old boy!”
Dan chuckled. “We’ll have an old rival in that run—if we have the luck
to get into it.”
“Who’s that?” demanded his brother.
“Chance Avery. Burton Poole has taken him into partnership in his motor
car. You know, Poole’s got a good car. Chance has been rather out of
conceit with the motorcycle business ever since the races at the
baseball park.”
“When you walked away from him, eh?” said Billy.
“But I heard him bragging down to Mr. Appleyard’s store yesterday that
he and Burton were going to have a try for the gold cup—and they
expected to ‘lift’ it.”
“It’s just providential, then,” said Billy, seriously, “that Maxey’s
machine was wrecked, and I got a chance to buy it.”
The Speedwell family numbered but six—besides the parents and Dan and
Billy, there were only Carrie, ten years old, and Adolph, who was just
toddling around and learning to talk. They were, in spite of their
somewhat straitened circumstances, a very happy family. Mr. Speedwell
was not a strong man, but was gaining in health now that he worked out
of doors instead of in a shop. With the help of his two big boys (Dan
was sixteen and Billy a year younger) he was making the small dairy pay.
Although the boys had long ridden bicycles, and still owned their steeds
of steel, the motorcycles on which they had taken their spin along the
river road that day had been presented to them by Mr. Robert
Darringford, and were the best wheels the Darringford Machine Shops
could turn out. Now the fact that Dan and Billy were about to own an
automobile was indeed a matter for discussion and interest around the
evening lamp.
“For a poor man’s sons, I believe you two are doing pretty well,”
remarked quiet Mr. Speedwell. He never went back upon what he said;
having told the boys they could do what they pleased with the thousand
dollars they had earned, he was not likely to criticize Billy’s
impulsive bargain.
That afternoon Dan and Billy hurried home on their machines and went at
once to the woodlot with their axes. They cut and shaped two white-oak
timbers, loaded them into the heavy wagon with such timber chains and
ropes as they chanced to have about the barns, and drove back through
the town and out upon the river road to the spot where the accident had
occurred.
Jim Stetson and Wiley Moyle, both members of the Riverdale Outing Club,
and in their same grade at the local academy, saw the Speedwells driving
through town, and they climbed into the wagon.
“By gravey!” ejaculated Wiley. “I didn’t believe it when they told me.
Do you mean, Billy, that you’ve given up five hundred good dollars to
Maxey Solomons for that smashed-up car?”
“Dan and I have bought it,” admitted Billy, cheerfully.
“You must both be crazy, then,” declared young Moyle. “You’ll never get
it out of those trees without smashing it all to bits. What do you want
a motor car for, anyway? You’ve got motorcycles; and it wasn’t long ago
you were riding bicycles like the rest of us. The club will go to the
dogs if all the members get buzz-carts.”
“Don’t you fret,” returned Dan, laughing. “As long as we can keep
Captain Chance Avery in bounds, you fellows who ride bikes will not be
neglected in club affairs.”
“Remember how Dan fought for you at the meeting following the Barnegat
run,” said Jim. “And he and Billy owned their motors then.”
“But an auto is different,” grumbled Wiley. “Look at Burton Poole—and
the Greenes. They don’t care about going on the club runs at all any
more because the autos have been shut out.”
“Fisher Greene isn’t stuck on the things,” said Billy, laughing.
“No. There’s never any room for Fisher in the car,” said Jim Stetson,
“and he has to stick to his old bike.”
Although Wiley was such a “knocker,” as Jim expressed it, he lent a
sturdy hand to the unloading of the wagon. Dan had brought tools, and
after carefully planning the arrangement of the contrivance he proposed
building, the elder Speedwell began digging a post hole beside the road,
and inside the wall. There was a turf bank here and the work of
excavating was comparatively easy.
While the quartette of boys were thus engaged an automobile came into
view from down the road. It approached swiftly, and Wiley Moyle suddenly
recognized it.
“See who has come!” he scoffed. “Here’s Burton Poole’s buzz-wagon with
Captain Chance at the wheel. Chance is going to win the gold cup, he
says, and he and Poole are in partnership with that old lumber wagon.”
Chanceford Avery, who was considerable older than most of the club
members, was a dark complexioned, sharp featured young man, not much
liked by the boys of Riverdale, but who made himself agreeable to most
of the girl members of the Outing Club.
Some months before he had shown his enmity to the Speedwells, and he
never let an opportunity escape for being unpleasant to the brothers.
When he saw what the boys were about beside the road, he brought the
automobile to an abrupt halt.
“Haven’t you got a cheek to dig that bank up in that manner, Speedwell?”
he said. “You’ll get into trouble.”
“Guess not,” returned Dan, cheerfully. “It never entered my head we’d
have to get a permit to set a post down here, as long as we are going to
take the post right up again and fill in the hole. I’ve saved the sod
whole, too.”
“At any rate, there’s one thing sure,” snapped Billy, who didn’t like
young Avery at all, any more than he did Francis Avery, Chanceford’s
brother, and the superintendent of the Darringford shops; “we haven’t
got to come to _you_ for a permit.”
“Aw, stop your rowing, you fellows,” advised Burton Poole, who was a
good-natured, easy-going chap. “What are you going to do, Dan?”
Dan explained briefly, still keeping on with his work.
“You’ll have a fat time trying to get that old hulk of a car up here,”
sneered Chance Avery. “And after you get it up, what good is it?”
“That we’ll see about later,” returned the older Speedwell, rather
gruffly.
“Max Solomons made a fool of you,” declared Chance. “He is blowing
around town how he got the best of you fellows. Why, the car wasn’t good
for much when it got pitched over the bank.”
“You’d laugh the other side of your mouth if this old car ever beat you
and Poole, wouldn’t you now?” demanded Billy.
“I suppose you fellows intend entering with it in the thousand mile
endurance run?” laughed Chance.
“Bet your life we are!” cried Billy, before his brother could stop him.
“Listen to that, will you, you fellows?” said Chance. “These Speedwells
are the limit!”
“We’ve been able to beat you before now, Chanceford Avery,” snapped
Billy. “Now go along! Nobody wants you here.”
Chance might have stopped longer to argue the point, but Burton, who was
all for peace, urged him on. Their car, which was really a very good
one, hummed away toward town. Inside of twenty minutes a carriage
rattled down to the place where the boys were at work.
“Hey, you, Dan Speedwell!” exclaimed an unpleasant voice, and Dan looked
up from settling the big timber in the ground to see Josiah Somes, the
Riverdale constable.
“How d’ye do, Mr. Somes,” returned the youth. “Haven’t caught those
robbers in the maroon car yet, have you?”
The other boys laughed. Josiah’s ability as a detective was a joke about
town.
“Well, them other fellers haven’t caught the scoundrels, either,”
snarled Somes. “I guess there ain’t no medals on Polk, if he _is_ a
deputy!”
“Wish you luck,” said Dan, good naturedly.
“Never you mind about them bank robbers. I ain’t here looking for them,”
said the constable. “I want _you_.”
“What!” cried Dan. “Are you going to arrest me again, Mr. Somes?”
“I want to know who gave you permission to dig that hole, and clutter up
this place with them contraptions.”
Dan and Billy looked meaningly at each other. Both boys knew at once
that Chance Avery had set Josiah Somes after them—and the constable was
only too willing to do them an ill turn.
“Come on!” the man snarled. “Hop into my buggy, Dan Speedwell. I’m going
to take you before the ’Squire and see what he’s got to say about this.”